1. Lab leak theory getting a new hearing is salutary (since the origins of covid are unsolved and it's a reasonable, although not likely, hypothesis). What's not salutary is how some contrarians are using the current moment to whitewash promoters of bioweapons theory.
2. It's important to understand that lab leak theory (accidental release of virus collected as part of normal research) is distinct from the far less plausible bioweapon theories (engineered virus, perhaps deliberately released).
3. Prominent Trumpist both outside the government (Bannon) and inside it (Navarro) used the legitimate lab leak theory as a stalking horse for the much more radical (and unsupported) bioweapon theories. That was the source of fact-checking reaction of 2020.
4. In a long post, @mattyglesias claims that in early 2020 Tom Cotton was simply advancing lab leak theory (with some hawkish rhetoric) and got unfairly tarnished as bioweapons conspiracist. 
5. But if you look at what Cotton was actually saying in that period, very clear he was saying there were a number of theories possible including the shocking possibility Chinese gov't deliberately released weapons on own people.
6. People who remember the Iraq war might recall the consequences of USA gov't officials making false claims about another country having WMDs. The contrarians are playing a dangerous game. More here: jeetheer.substack.com/p/contra-the-c…
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